I have been touched by the hand of a god. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s7e9: Covenant, Gul Dukat
I will no longer serve gods who give me nothing in return. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s7e19: Strange Bedfellows, Kai Winn
As private parts to the gods are we; they play with us for their sport. Blackadder II: Chains, Melchett to Blackadder in dungeon, BBC 1986
Human beings are pattern-seeking animals. It’s part of our DNA. That’s why conspiracy theories and gods are so popular: we always look for the wider, bigger explanations for things. Adrian McKinty, The Cold Cold Ground
This man is now become a god. Julius Caesar ***** starring Paterson Joseph & Ray Fearon & Cyril Nri & Adjoa Andoh & Jeffery Kissoon et al, director Gregory Duran, RSC production 2012
I think the evidence now shows that the people of the Bible believed in many gods. And the scribes who composed the Bible did their best to conceal this, but not altogether successfully. Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Bible’s Buried Secrets 2/3: Did God Have a Wife? BBC 2011
Another god whose name appears in the Bible over a hundred and thirty times – the god Baal ... So what was the appeal of the god Baal? ibid.
A god who is even more powerful than Baal – the god el ... A religious reality disguised in the Bible: for el is also the god of the ancient Israelites – el is God. And the evidence is there for anyone to see. ibid.
In the Bible God reveals his proper name – his name is Yahweh ... But the reality is he wasn’t always known as Yahweh. God used to be known by another name. A name still embedded in this part of the world today. A name that contradicts the Biblical claim that its god of monotheism is unique and distinct. ibid.
Is El of the Israelites the same as El of the Canaanites? El can be used as a generic term for God. Much like we use the word God today ... But there are also lot of cases where it is being used as an actual name. ibid.
I think He was a Canaanite god. ibid.
The Bible makes yet another false claim – the claim that apart from a few lapses the ancient Israelites were essentially true to one God. Evidence now casts serious doubt on this claim. ibid.
Each god was responsible for his or her patch of earthly affairs. Amongst these gods was of course the weather-god Baal. ibid.
A female counterpart, a goddess ... It’s the word Asherah. The word is found forty times ... But why is the Bible so unsettled by this apparent object? ... Archaeology now shows us that Asherah wasn’t always an object. ibid.
Asherah’s role is of a life-giving goddess. ibid.
The Tree of Life was frequently used to represent the goddess. ibid.
All across Israel, in almost every excavation of ancient domestic buildings, archaeologists are unearthing female figurines. ibid.
The Israelites were polytheists. And God had a wife. ibid.
A systematic purge of polytheism: traces of this purge can be detected in polemical stories in the Bible itself. Stories in which Yahweh takes on the other gods in a celestial war. ibid.
Judaism and Christianity are proud of their monotheistic pedigree ... This history has been skilfully manufactured by the scribes who composed these ancient texts. The claims that Abraham and his descendants worshipped a unique and distinctive God just don’t stand up. The truth about the Bible is that for most of its time its people were polytheists. And their chief god had a wife. ibid.
In toppling the goddess from Heaven, monotheism disempowered women. ibid.
Ruling over them – Zeus himself, the father of gods and men. The most exiting of these myths are the stories of wars of the gods in Heaven. I believe we can understand their roots. Professor Robin Lane Fox, Greek Myths: Tales of Travelling Heroes, BBC 2010
The pagan Greeks had no scriptures; they had many gods who never died. They never expected mercy from them. They prayed to them as if they were great aristocrats in heaven. Unpredictable in their favours to mortals. And unpredictable in their quarrels. ibid.
Of course the story of Aphrodite is connected to much grander stories in Heaven – When Father Heaven is castrated of course, blood and white sperm flies everywhere. And according to the Greeks when the sperm falls down into the sea somebody very significant is born from it ... Aphrodite. ibid.
Long before Christ, Mount Ida was a sort of pagan Bethlehem. Because of its role in the myth of the Greek’s supreme God – Zeus. That myth begins with Zeus’s father, Kronos, who had castrated his own father Heaven. But it was prophesied that Kronos himself would be overthrown by his son. So he swallowed his babies at birth. ibid.
Attis was a self-castrated god-man who was born of a virgin, worshipped between March 22 and Marcy 27 (vernal equinox) and hanged on a cut pine tree. He escaped, fled, descended into a cave, died, rose again and was later called ‘Father God’. Dan Barker, Godless
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Genesis 3:1-7
Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments. Genesis 35:2
And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. Genesis 35:4
Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Exodus 15:11
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3
And the Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. Exodus 20:22-26
He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed. Exodus 22:20
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.
And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. Exodus 32:4-6
But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Exodus 34:13&14